Family Portrait

oh boy I sure hope nothing traumatic will ever happen to poor little Kai

Like. Zane is so insanely "Special Unique Protagonist" coded that in almost any other story that's exactly what he'd be. He's a robot and a ninja and he has prophetic visions and ice powers and fun robot falcon sidekick and a bunch of evil clones and a possibly evil twin brother and a badass robot wife and his own leitmotif, and later he learns how to use his robot abilities to shapeshift/cast tech-based illusions on himself, and he's conditionally immortal but also effectively the most killable person on the team.

He's routinely victimized and rescued, as if he was written by an angsty 12 year old who wants to experience the catharsis of comfort vicariously through him. He's excessively self-sacrificial with a martyr complex and is always being dramatically mourned by those who love him, a super smart and wise genius but also deeply kind and loving to a fault, loves animals, can canonically sing/dance/cook pretty well, and according to the Core shorts he is also the team's living embodiment of Compassion.

I say this with all the love and affection in my heart, but you can't tell me Zane isn't at least a little bit Mary Sue-coded (and I love him for it). Or at the very least a Disney princess.

And yet. For so much of the series, he's pretty much chilling in the background like he's Just Some GuyTM. Like, don't mind Zary Suelien over there, he's just minding his business. Character development? Plot relevance? Narrative focus? Never heard of it.

I like to think Zane tried out the protagonist thing for a few minutes, decided it didn't agree with him, and then happily faded into the background to let everyone else take the full brunt of the plot instead. And although it absolutely didn't work because he's quite literally doomed by the narrative, I gotta say I respect the effort nonetheless.